PORTUGAL keeper Ricardo seized his moment of destiny to fire the host country into the semi-finals of Euro 2004 and send England home.

PORTUGAL keeper Ricardo seized his moment of destiny to fire the host country into the semi-finals of Euro 2004 and send England home.

The 28-year-old Sporting Lisbon star produced a fine save to keep out Darius Vassell's penalty in an agonising shootout and then nervelessly converted his side's seventh spot-kick to see them through to the last four.

It was a remarkable cameo by a man who later insisted that he knew the time was right to leave his mark on the competition, waving away defender Nuno Valente as he strode down the pitch ready to take on David James.

"I knew it was the right time to do it," he said. "It's not new for me to take penalties, but tonight I really wanted to do it."

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted that he had no qualms about allowing Ricardo to take the penalty, but only after he had denied Vassell.

"I've never seen him miss a penalty kick," he said. "I wanted to see him make a great save and then I was confident that he could take the penalty."

Ricardo dived low to turn Vassell's effort away. "It was probably the most important save I have ever made, and it came in one of Portugal's most important ever matches," he added.

"You can watch as many videos as you like, but when you're standing there in front of the ball it's basically instinct."